🇺🇸 United States·OECD Pensions at a Glance · 2025

Will your pension be enough in the United States?

Type your salary. See what a full career in the pension system pays you back the month you stop working.

I earn $ a year before tax in the United States.

The OECD average wage in the United States was $70,627 in 2024, the salary shown. Wages have grown since, so a salary from today places you slightly higher on this scale than you really are.

Share of your take-home pay your pension replaces

51.3%

About half your income disappears at retirement.

On the pension system alone, retirement means a real step down. The OECD average at your pay level is 63.2%.

After a full career, the pension system in the United States would replace 51.3% of your take-home pay from age 67. Before tax, that is about $2,337 a month, against $5,886 today.

The gap in money

From payslip to pension.

Before tax, the pension replaces 39.7% of your pay. After tax it replaces 51.3%, because pensioners in the United States pay less tax and fewer social contributions than workers. Both figures are in today's money.

Today

$5,886

per month, before tax

Your salary before tax.

Your pension

$2,337

39.7% of your pay, before tax

Paid from age 67, in today's money.

The gap

$3,549

per month, before tax

What your own savings would have to pay to keep your full income.

Savings of your own are not optional here: they are the other half of your retirement. Covering $3,549 a month yourself takes about $1,064,702 of savings by age 67, at a 4% withdrawal rate. Most people need less than their full salary once work costs and pension contributions stop, but this is the size of the job.

In today's money: the OECD models pensions relative to earnings at retirement, which rise with average wages. A 4% withdrawal rate means saving 25 times the yearly gap.

What your pay changes

Higher earners get a smaller share back.

The OECD models three pay levels in the United States. At 0.5× the average wage the pension replaces 62.5% of take-home pay; at the average, 51.3%; at twice the average, 40.0%. A gap of 22.5 points: the system leans toward low earners.

Net replacement rates from OECD Table 4.4. Tap a level to use its salary.

With a voluntary plan

What a typical voluntary plan adds.

Beyond the mandatory system, the OECD also models the voluntary pension many workers in the United States pay into, with typical contributions over a full career.

Mandatory plus voluntary

100.7% instead of 51.3%

About $4,402 a month before tax, $2,066 more than the mandatory pension alone. It only counts if you actually join and keep contributing for your whole career.

38 OECD countries

Same pay, 38 pension systems.

Every OECD country, for someone earning 1× their own country's average wage, as you do. The pension system in the United States ranks 29 of 38.

OECD avg 63.2%

🇳🇱Netherlands

96.0%

🇹🇷Türkiye

94.4%

🇵🇹Portugal

92.7%

🇬🇷Greece

88.5%

🇱🇺Luxembourg

87.7%

🇦🇹Austria

86.8%

🇪🇸Spain

86.3%

🇲🇽Mexico

79.6%

🇮🇹Italy

79.0%

🇭🇺Hungary

78.0%

🇩🇰Denmark

77.1%

🇸🇰Slovakia

76.3%

🇨🇴Colombia

73.1%

🇸🇮Slovenia

71.3%

🇫🇷France

70.0%

🇨🇷Costa Rica

69.5%

🇸🇪Sweden

66.3%

🇫🇮Finland

65.7%

🇨🇱Chile

61.3%

🇧🇪Belgium

61.1%

🇨🇿Czechia

55.9%

🇳🇴Norway

54.9%

🇮🇱Israel

54.4%

🇬🇧United Kingdom

54.2%

🇩🇪Germany

53.3%

🇮🇸Iceland

53.3%

🇦🇺Australia

53.0%

🇱🇻Latvia

52.2%

🇺🇸United States

YOU

51.3%

🇨🇭Switzerland

47.5%

🇨🇦Canada

45.1%

🇳🇿New Zealand

43.8%

🇯🇵Japan

42.4%

🇵🇱Poland

40.6%

🇰🇷South Korea

38.9%

🇪🇪Estonia

37.8%

🇮🇪Ireland

33.7%

🇱🇹Lithuania

28.2%

Net replacement rate OECD average (63.2%)

Men, mandatory schemes, OECD Pensions at a Glance 2025 Table 4.4, placed at your multiple of each country's average wage.

Worth knowing

Three numbers behind yours.

Your pension age

The normal pension age the OECD uses for someone who starts work at 22 today. The OECD average is 66.4.

OECD average earner

63.2%

Share of take-home pay replaced for an average earner across the 38 countries. In the United States: 51.3%.

Best and worst

96.0% · 28.2%

Netherlands replaces 3.4 times the share Lithuania does, for the same average earner with the same full career.

Where does your salary rank in the United States?

See your income against every household in the country.

→

Model your own pension with this salary

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Next moves

Four ways to act on this number.

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Your own contributions, retirement age and savings, year by year.

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What a monthly amount grows to by your pension age.

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Frequently asked questions

For an average earner who starts work at 22 and works a full career, the mandatory pension system in the United States replaces 51.3% of take-home pay and 39.7% of gross pay, according to OECD Pensions at a Glance 2025. That ranks 29 of the 38 OECD countries; the OECD average is 63.2%.

The OECD puts the average wage in the United States at $70,627 a year (2024). A full career at that wage earns a pension of about $2,337 a month before tax in today's money, 39.7% of gross pay, paid from the normal pension age of 67.

At 0.5× the average wage the pension replaces 62.5% of take-home pay; at twice the average, 40.0%. That gap of 22.5 points means the system leans toward low earners.

For someone who starts work at 22 today, the OECD models the normal pension age in the United States as 67, against an OECD average of 66.4. The replacement rates on this page assume retiring at that age.

Partly. With the voluntary scheme the OECD models for the United States, an average earner's pension rises from 51.3% to 100.7% of take-home pay. That only applies to people who actually join it and contribute for a full career.

It is your pension after tax and social contributions divided by your take-home pay before retirement. The OECD calculates it for a worker who starts at 22 and works a full career to the normal pension age. A rate of 51.3% means that for every 100 you take home while working, you keep about 51 as a pensioner.

OECD Pensions at a Glance 2025: net replacement rates from Table 4.4, gross from Table 4.1, voluntary schemes from Table 4.5, average wages from Table 7.5. The OECD models a worker who starts at 22 in 2024 and works a full career to the normal pension age under the rules legislated today, in mandatory schemes (including workplace schemes that cover nearly all employees). Between the three pay levels the OECD models, this page assumes the pension grows in a straight line with pay. Real careers with gaps, part-time years or time abroad produce lower pensions.

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